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These are the utilities I have on my drive:
CurrPorts displays the list of
all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP
ports on your local computer.
ftpserver3lite is an FTP server
ftpwanderer2 is an FTP client
ipnetinfo answers questions
about an IP address: owner,
country/state, range, contact info,
etc.
miranda general messaging
solution (supports most P2P ...

Update: Microsoft has created the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool to make this very easy.
I used this guide as a set of directions - http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1665.entry
The steps are really longer than necessary. You need to:
1. Get a fast 4GB or larger USB Thumbdrive.
2. Run cmd.exe and enter the following commands followed ...

In top of that, I strongly recommend to add TrueCrypt if you keep any personal or confidential data. Sometimes I need to put customer's database backups and I'd be in great trouble if someone gets access to them.

[Update: Initially I deleted this answer because I spotted it was already mentioned in the question. However I think it would be good for it to see votes so I have checked the Community Wiki box to prevent people from thinking I'm trying to game the system]
Apps from http://portableapps.com/ like Portable Firefox leave no trace on the system you run them ...

Linux (e.g. Debian, Knoppix, Puppy). Even if the systems you're working with aren't Linux, you can get useful things done by having a full, working OS in your pocket; sometimes having a different OS can even be an advantage.

I have done this only recently - works really well. I have an 8GB usb key with several ISO images on it. When I boot from the key, I get to choose which ISO to boot from. Pretty damn cool. This is all courtesy of GRUB. Instructions here:
http://themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php
In the example it is showing how to boot a single Acronis recovery ISO, but ...

Portability: the drive will be unreadable by computers running
Windows 95, 98 or Me, (some)Linux, or any
other non-Windows device.
Longevity: NTFS will shorten the life of the drive. It is a
journalling file system, which means
that it logs changes, not just the
end result, causing more writes to
the drive. It also logs last access
times for files, so even ...

Are you even sure if the ISO image will work on a USB device? Some ISOs which will boot if they are on a CD/DVD will not actually boot from a USB device.
Assuming the ISO you want has has a bootloader that will work, then it should be as simple as dd if=filename.iso of=/dev/usbdevice but this will replace anything that is currently on the USB disk.
If ...

Microsoft has a knowledge base article on this very issue (KB555324). You have to create a custom Group Policy ADM. O'Reilly has an easier to grok writeup at:
http://windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/11/15/disabling-usb-storage-with-group-policy.html.
Hope this helps.

I found two problems with the accepted answer:
It assumes the usb drive is disk 1 for DISKPART.
This can be resolved by using the LIST DISK command prior to SELECT DISK # to determine the correct disk number.
The usb drive did not appear as a bootable device to the target machine.
This can be fixed by running the bootsect utility off the Windows ...

I know you can do this in UNetbootin gui.
I haven't tried it myself, but it looks like you can do it by command-line, as well:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/unetbootin/wiki/commands
unetbootin method=diskimage isofile="my.iso" installtype=USB targetdrive=/dev/sdc1

I think the answer will be No.
Anything else would be a major hack, .NET install updates all sorts of things in the system, and its loader assumes those things are in place (e.g. GAC exists, location of compilers, IIS/IE/... integration).

Personally I have never had a problem with data loss in XP or Vista when simply pulling a USB stick out. The key factor is to make sure data is not being written to the disk when removing it.
I do reformat my USB devices to use NTFS tho, (which they typically are formated as FAT32 from the factory).
Alternately you will see an icon near your PC clock to ...

There is a tool (YUMI) to achieve this. I think, it is fastest and painless way of preparing a (multi)bootable usb. You can put many systems (Windows, Linux, HBCD etc.) into one flash drive. And you can also use an external drive.

We have some ESXi boxes that boot of SD/USB, it's ok, it works - nothing to write home about.
But if you use SSDs with v5.0U1 it'll use the SSD as swap space for very significantly improved system performance in memory contended situations. That said you need to make sure you use HCL-compliant SSD (same as every other component) and their cost would ...

I usually keep about a dozen different types of boot-images on my USB (and yes, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to buy all this stuff):
DOS boot for Ghost (for old computers)
DOS boot with CDROM
SpinRite
Small BartPE with Ghost
memtest86
Offline NT Password Recovery boot
The main reason being that when you work with governmental organizations, you can't ...

Definitely Total Commander. Just runs out of the install folder; does packing/unpacking, FTP, file diff, folder sync, multi-rename, checksum generation/verification. You name it...
For those who still own POP3 accounts; E-Res-Q (shameless plug!) allows no-frills access to a POP3 account for quick viewing and cleanup of messages (good for clearing spammed ...

Well, the main advantages of NTFS over FAT32 (the usual choice for flash drives are):
better for very large partitions (bigger clusters, files >2GB possible)
filesystem permissions
journaled, thus better crash recovery
1 & 2 only matter for very big flash drives (several GB), so not usually an issue. 3 is relevant if you frequently "forget" to do a ...